“I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n
This Jeffersonian truism applies to your genealogy as much as it does to any work. A difficult lineage takes a lost of work–a lot of reading, a lot of looking at documents, a lot of combing through early indexes. A lot of study: jurisdictions, boundary lines, dates of legal changes, and place names. A lot of examining several persons of the same names living in the same localities. A lot of careful detail work.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most difficult part, still, is unavailability of records. And I thought I had encountered all of the possible obstacles in the way of actually viewing the pertinent documents. After all, I specialize in Southern research, I know that a lot of documents are needed. And, a lot of documents have already been lost! I was wrong–this is the first pandemic<\/strong> of my lifetime that closed down all of the libraries and archives.<\/p>\n I live near book stores, universities, historical societies, branch libraries, the famous Family History Library<\/strong> <\/em>operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have access to the internet with about every website of genealogy significance at my fingertips! I have memberships for important websites that are not free to use–yet. And I have my own genealogy collection and the amazing Conner-Bishop Collection of books and periodicals in my possession.<\/p>\n And it is not enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n Each pedigree is unique enough, that it requires specific documents, too often not shared by other pedigrees from the same\u00a0 jurisdictions. Imagine, for a minute, what kind of searching capabilities genealogy requires. And why the challenge is so engaging! There is hardly any other pursuit to equal it. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle\u00a0 http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n PS I’m still at work. Books I could not find easily online, I am in the process of ordering for my own collection. As they arrive, I stop everything and search them. At least I have something to look forward to each and every day. And when the libraries and archives open–I will be on my way to use their treasures!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” Thomas Jefferson. This Jeffersonian truism applies to your genealogy as much as it does to any work. A difficult lineage takes a lost of work–a lot of … Continue reading